After one year as a transitional deacon, Deacon Cletus Orji says his vocation to the priesthood has come into even clearer focus as he has strived to incorporate the four pillars of seminary formation: human, pastoral, intellectual and spiritual.

“A seminarian should be a balanced person so that after our ordination when we go into a parish and minister to the people of God, we can do that in an effective way,” said Deacon Orji, a native of the southern Nigerian village of Eziawa.

His parish internship at St. Pius X in New Orleans allowed him to preach for the first time, and it provided the real-life experience to flesh out his meticulous homiletics practice at Notre Dame Seminary.

“I had the opportunity to preach every two weeks at weekend Masses and every day for weekday Masses,” Deacon Orji said. “That gave me the opportunity to make practical what I had learned. In the beginning, I was trying to be a little strict in going with what we were taught in the seminary. But as time went on, I adapted to the reality of the situation and tried to make the homily about the people in front of me.”

Deacon Orji writes out his homilies but has learned to focus on people in the congregation “to see if the expression on people’s faces let me know if they are really getting what I am saying.”

During his internship, Deacon Orji also presided at eight baptisms and led a Bible study on the Book of Revelation, tying together that Scripture with the celebration of the Mass.

“I linked that to our active participation in the Mass,” Deacon Orji said. “I think it came out well, to the glory of God.”

He also visited homebound parishioners and those in an assisted living residence, bringing them Communion and praying with them. Deacon Orji has close ties to his family of eight siblings. He was nourished in the Catholic faith by his devoutly religious parents, who recited the rosary daily. That practice eventually led to an attraction after high school graduation to consider entering the seminary.

He entered the Dominican Institute of Philosophy and Theology, which is affiliated with the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, to study philosophy and complete a master’s program in bioethics.

Deacon Orji had hoped that his mother and one of his brothers could come to New Orleans for the June 2 ordination, but they could not obtain a visa to enter the U.S. He hopes to visit his family after his ordination if he can get the proper travel documents himself.

He is most eager to celebrate the Eucharist and the sacrament of reconciliation.

“That is where we meet God,” he said. “Pope Francis said in one of his letters that God is reaching out to us and we encounter that in confession. I myself have experienced God’s mercy in so many ways. I understand the joy that comes from forgiveness, because I myself have been forgiven and God continues to forgive me. I am looking forward to being an instrument of God’s forgiveness to his people.”